Fruit Intake & Your Oral Health

It’s universally-agreed that fruit is part of any well-rounded, healthy diet. It’s recommended people consume 3 to 4 servings of fruit per day, which equates to 1 ½ to 2 cups, or about 25% of your daily food intake. Fruit staves off things like scurvy, vitamin C deficiencies, vitamin K deficiencies, and several other chronic health problems. Fruit supports your cardiovascular system, digestive system and immune system as well.

In terms of oral health, getting the recommended servings of fruit each day protects it. Vitamin C protects your gums from harmful bacteria. Fibrous fruits help remove plaque and tartar as you chew them. Vitamin B encourages cell health and the growth of new, healthy cells everywhere in your body, including your mouth. Dark berries have been shown to prevent bad bacteria from attaching to teeth and gums, and Vitamin A is an essential nutrient for building and retaining strong, healthy teeth.

Is There Such a Thing as Too Much Fruit?

Just like anything, there are dangers to going overboard on your fruit intake. Fruit contains a lot of sugar, and citrus fruits contain a lot of acid. Sugars encourage bacteria and tooth decay, and citric acid can eat away at tooth enamel. Too much sugar can also lead to pre-diabetes and diabetes, an illness that has been linked to periodontitis. So, as with all food, the “too much of a good thing” ism stands true. It also matters whether you drink or chew your fruit.

The Dangers of Drinking Your Daily Servings of Fruit

Parents often give their small children fruit juice because kids are picky eaters. Maybe they won’t eat an apple, but they’ll drink apple juice. Isn’t it the same? Nope. Same thing with your morning smoothie routine – drinking your 4 daily servings of fruit might do more harm than good. Your dentist might have even told you that fruit juice is no better than soda for your dental health, and they’re right.

• Eating fibrous fruits, especially at the end of a meal, helps remove bacteria on your teeth and stimulates your gums. This helps your mouth make more saliva, cleaning and protecting your teeth and gums from whatever you’ve just eaten. If you drink your fruit, you lose all those advantages and you leave sugars and acids left over from the juice.
• You might think squeezing fruit to make fresh juices with no added sugars is a hack for this issue, but it’s not. Lemonades and orange juices made fresh are actually worse for your enamel. Some studies have observed an 80%+ reduction in enamel strength directly after drinking a glass of fresh OJ.
• When you turn a fruit into juice, you lose almost all the fiber, and several vitamin levels are significantly lowered, including vitamin C. But you know what’s not reduced almost at all? Sugar. Acid. Fruit juice isn’t just less healthy for your mouth; it’s less healthy overall.
• Too much fruit juice has been linked to cardiovascular disease in adulthood, and cardiovascular disease has strong correlations with the development of periodontitis.

How to Balance Keeping Fruit in Your Diet and Taking Care of Your Teeth

None of this is to say, “Stop drinking fruit! Save your teeth!” You can have your fruit and eat it, too; you’ve just got to be mindful of how you get it, when you eat or drink it, and how you do your at-home dental care. (In addition to keeping those regular cleaning appointments with your dentist, of course.)

• If you drink your fruit, use a straw, and don’t drink it over a long term. Follow with water. In fact, really just stick to water. Try looking at a tall glass of cranberry-raspberry juice as a treat, just like you would view a soda, and stick to whole fruits the vast majority of the time.
• Wait at least an hour after any kind of fruit intake before brushing your teeth. The immediate softening of the enamel is temporary; it bounces back after the fruit’s sugars and acids are gone. You want to wait until your enamel has recovered before brushing, because brushing softened enamel can cause further damage and encourage tooth erosion.
• Drink fluoridated water; it encourages enamel integrity. Bottled water tends not to be fluoridated, but tap water is.

When it comes to fruit, it doesn’t have to be (and shouldn’t be) all or nothing. As long as you’re smart about your diet, your personal oral care, and seeing your dentist from regular exams and cleanings, you’ll protect the health of your whole body, not just your mouth.